Chapter 38
I never told my mother that I had scattered Dad’s ashes in the depths of the Grand Canyon. It had only been a week since we arrived back home from Arizona. I was sitting at the kitchen table, paying bills and taking care of other correspondence, working my way through a third cup of coffee.
Darth snored in a ball at my feet.
I looked out the kitchen window into the backyard to the small garden I had planted earlier that year. It was a jumble of overgrown weeds and sickly-looking foliage; the vivid colors of the azaleas and chrysanthemums were marked black with mold and a reminder that a long cold winter was soon approaching. It reminded me of my mother’s abandoned garden in Arizona.
Philip was back to work as sheriff, trying to keep the small town safe from corruption, an on
